What an exceptional little app! I predict these guys sell a million of these. The software is very easy to use and looks fantastic. The books are legible and easy to read and I love the fact that the developers went after the "classics" rather than new releases. The stories they have chosen are timeless and exceptional reading. I buy a lot of the classics in hard-back and will continue to do so, but I will also come back for more of whatever these guys release.

Definitely a wonderful interface, but this first version lacks two features of great importance to a reader: ability to adjust font size, and ability to add one's own books from the millions of classics out there.

The UI is nearly perfect, but a few small cracks in the armor are already showing. There is an awkward pause when opening a book with no smooth animation to cover it up. The wonderful cover art is also never really seen full screen. Why not? And why no option to jump to a certain page number. If you're never going to use it, then why are the numbers on every page? My hope is that as more classic titles are rolled out we will be treated to a few UI refinements as well. And once we do get more books, how about the option to delete a title?

I think some people are missing the point of this app and asking for things it cannot do. What makes it so beautiful is it's designed and formatted just like a printed book, using attractive type and nice spacing, with no widows and orphans. How could they possibly maintain that beauty if the reader could change the type size? And how could they add the ability to plug in your own classic texts when those texts aren't yet formatted? It would end up like the other readers and lose its distinction.

Classics combines analog queues with modern convenience, making digital reading a wonderfully unique experience. Enjoy custom design and illustration of public domain titles, sliding population of shelves, intuitive drag and drop organization, scrolling and loading of titles. Plus the feature developers obviously have gone out of their way to implement; a warmly responsive pagination and reading experience. Absolutely love the detailed design of each interface element, the flat and rustic feel of books, pages, shelves and even the icon. Book outline elements create a trompe-l'œil from the reading screens, conveying tactile feedback and that familiar feeling of holding a classic. Combined with the navigation bar as progress meter and familiar metaphors such as the bookmark on exit make this application an absolute delight to use. Anxiously awaiting future titles, more custom designs and enhancements like search, zooming and customized preferences. Perhaps some people will get tired of the pagination effect or simply appreciate scrolling as faster means of devouring those thicker classics. Such is the elegance in implementation of details throughout this application, it would not be surprising in some future version an effect for reaching those last few pages where the thickness of a book denotes the end of another wonderful classic. Maybe it is even wrong to want the ability of reading all digital books this way, because this custom reading experience is so beautifully designed one does not wish to spoil a classic.

This is the first review I've ever written in iTunes. The interface for this app is gorgeous. It makes reading the books on the iPhone actually a pleasure. I hope this program becomes the interface for every book on the iPhone. At least it deserves to be.

Simple, beautiful, usable and affordable. Can't get much better than that. Good work Phill and Andrew!

As nearly every other reviewer has noted, this is a very pretty application. While using Classics, I actually forgot I was reading on my iPod. Stanza is a fantastic and flexible application, but, in using it, I am always aware that I am reading from a small electronic device - making getting lost in any literature very difficult.

The care and detail is so wonderful. Tremendously pleasurable. This truly is an enriching application. You can skip to chapters after touching the icon in the upper right. Lots of grace notes. The silk bookmark slides down when closing out, the speed of the page turn changes if you tap or drag slowly. Good selection of public domain books. At some point some current titles will be great. I love it, though. Who said " people don't read anymore?" We are here and these new ereaders prove who valuable storytelling remains, be it with quill, press or pixel.

The best book reader for the iPhone. Everything looks perfect, and the book selection is great. I really can't wait for the new books in the free updates, but for now I know I'll start with 20,000 Leagues.

I just finished reading Robinson Crusoe and are halfway through The Hound of the Baskervilles. Just pure reading pleasure.

This e-book reader far exceeds the standard e-book formats presently available anywhere on the iTunes app store in style, ease of use, and class. Simply beautiful! Good job & great app!!!

LOVE the look, feel and function of the app. Let me be the first to say it... "Instant Classic." An iPhone app done right.

Classics looks great and works perfectly.

Horizontal reading and font size choice. Thank you!

I'm a huge fan of the Classic app! I love reading these gems. now I can have a whole shelf of them in the palm of my hand. Really elegant interface. A pleasure :)

Great idea, beautiful UI, and I'm sure it will continue to get better. Great for the morning Subway ride and people like me who can't be bothered to carry a book around with them all the time. Looking forward to more books in future updates and I'd love to see bigger book covers if they're all of the same high standard.

I really enjoy reading page by page, it is much easier to read long texts with this paradygm. I have found that scrolling through long texts requires more mental work as I have to continually locate my position. And, that is fine for slow reading technical material, but it takes away from the enjoyment of reading for pleasure. This application makes it enjoyable to read books on the iPhone. I know that the name of the application is Classics, but it would be nice to have modern titles available. In general, it would be nice to have more available titles.

This app leaves you breathless at the sheer beauty and excellence the developers have shown in preserving and exquisitively presenting great classic literary works! Any and all other ereaders should take note: Classis has set the bar, and I dare say the ceiling, too. I simply melt waiting to see more great pieces added, and would love to see the developers expand their collective creativity and love for written works in a similar app for non-classics. They definitely will keep my support!

I'm not even going to mention being first, this application is that cool! This is something I've really wanted since the app store came out. This will really help during those boring times, and well worth the price. 12 books for 25 cents apiece is a great deal, even more so when you factor in that they are going to release more books in the future. Get this now! And for the creators I beg you for some George Orwell in the 1st patch. "1984" and "Animal Farm" especially. Thank you!

There are a lot of useless apps in the App Store -- this is not one of them! Definitely the best text reader I have come across so far. The ability to enter notes would be a great feature, but I don't think being able to add your own books would work very well. Can't wait to see how this app develops!!

Classics has quickly become one of my favorite applications on my iPod touch. There are eBook readers out there that offer endless customizability and the ability to upload your own texts. But that's not what Classics is about. What Classics does is delivers its limited selection of literary works to the screen with a loving attention to detail that makes even a books-are-made-of-paper snob like myself look forward to reading on the iPod. Though a very simple but very clever interface, Classics brings the experience of book reading to the iPod with panache.

Responding to the review that it is garbage and has only 9 books - yes it has been slow to add new books but I have 14 now and just had one added in the last few days (Pride and Prejudice Yay!) - so the person who only has only 9 must not be updating their apps - it is worth the money and hopefully books will now be coming more frequently.

... but dropping the price after harnessing the early adopters is not good policy!

This is one of the very few worthwhile apps found in the App Store. The key ingredients are clever design and devs that care. The app itself is beautiful yet highly functional, clean, and uncluttered. It's easy to use and the design cues add to this; for example, the page flip makes it feel like a real book and the page and font color are easy on the eyes. You can easily organize the books by putting them in the order you want, and the covers are gorgeous. The book selection is good, and free updates will always add more books as they're formatted. All in all, one of my favorite apps that I've found thus-far.

just finished reading the first chapter of the Time Machine. Easy to navigate and visually rank banks on shelf. Words are good size to read on screen. Only small drawback I found is that while it does bookmark the spot you exited the book if you take a call or go back to the main screen while in the middle of the book you will have to start on the bookshelf, select your book to get back to you book mark. Would be nicer to just return to the screen where you left it like in Mail. But not enough for me to lower the rating or enjoyment of this nice little app. Looking forward to more books. Steinbeck, Bukowski and Saroyan next please.

Great visually, but lacks basic features seen in other freely available readers. - adjustable font size - landscape reading mode - full screen reading - ability to download books - categorize by genre (will become more important as additional books are added) - MORE BOOKS!!! Good start, but not worth the $3 in it's current form. Seems like a beta version that should have been released for free in its current state of development.

Take advantage of this amazing deal!! Worth probably over $50 worth of books! But please add more books! This is no complaint; it's just a suggestion. The killer app is already phenomenal as it is now!!! Some more book suggestions: -Red Badge of Courage -Some more Sherlock Holmes -maybe a Hardy Boy or two -Rascal -Kidnapped -Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde -A Tale of two Cities And more! Thank you for this inexpensive, amazing app!!! :D 

While I hate to say it, because I am a fan of paper books, electronic books are probably the future, and this is a great app to set Apple on that path. It is fluid and easy to read, and the whole bookmark thing is great. It also offers some great novels that I can now read on the go, right on my cell phone! This is a great start to a great app, and there is tons of room for improvement, particularly in adding more novels. Obviously, we're limited to what we can have on here, due to copyright stuff, but eventually who knows where something like this could go. Maybe we will start paying .99 cents for a book on our phone, much like the Amazon Kindle. I can't wait to see where this app ends up.

Could it be possible to add the odyssey since you already have the illiad that would be awesome

NEEDS ABILITY TO LET YOU DELETE BOOKS YOU DON'T WANT!

Download Stanza from the app store FOR FREE and you can download and read all of the novels and many more FOR FREE! Shame on these developers for trying to make am easy buck

The company decided to sell the separate books for a fee each. That is contra to what they said at the beginning, that they will keep adding books on a regular basis. They should sell the books to the people who bought the app thinking they will get regular added books to the classic app, when they have been transposing many books and selling them for 1.99 each under Ubiklabs, I feel betrayed.